Ebb and Flow: Plenary Speakers, Seminars, Papers & Workshops

Plenary speakers, seminars, short papers, and workshops presented during the Ebb and Flow conference.  There were also tours, exhibitions, and receptions.

Plenary Speakers

Plenary I

Alice Prochaska
University Librarian
Yale University
Some Issues Relating to the Ownership of Manuscripts

James Raven
Professor of Modern History
University of Essex
Director of the Cambridge Project for the Book Trust
Transatlantic Migrations in the Colonial Period

Plenary II

Robert Parks
Robert H. Taylor Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts
The Pierpont Morgan Library
Pirate or Benefactor?: Public Perceptions of Pierpont Morgan’s Collecting

Michael Winship
Professor of English
University of Texas at Austin
“Too Costly, Too Voluminous, or of Too Little Value”: Building Research Collections in the 19th-c. United States

Plenary III

Thomas F. Staley
Director
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas at Austin
Between Scylla and Charybdis: Navigating the HRC through the New Century

Anthony Rota
Bertram Rota Ltd, London
Building a Fence Round a Cloud, or How to Define a Collection

Plenary IV

Robert D. McChesney
Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and History
Director of the Afghanistan Digital Library
New York University
Creating a Digital National Repository: The Afghanistan Digital Library

Seminars

Seminar A: Preservation for Special Collections: What’s Current and What’s to Come

Informal reports on current preservation issues & practices will be presented and discussed from the perspective of the special collections researcher and special collections professional. Topics include: Millennium Copyright Act; “hybridization” of the original and digital surrogate; digital documentation of conservation treatments; condition information in the MARC record; designation of “preservation copy” at the regional and national levels; and the Mellon-funded survey of archival and manuscript collection.

Discussion leaders: Janet Gertz, Head of Preservation, Columbia University Libraries and Charlotte B. Brown, University Archivist, UCLA.

Seminar B: ”If You Build It …”: Usability Testing for Special Collections

How do readers search our collections? How do researchers find sources and information in web pages, online catalogues, and finding aids? How on earth could a scholar figure out what’s in your collection? Reference librarians and information architects have been testing their web pages with users for years. This session revisits the questions of interface design and usability testing raised in an SAA session last August, and is supported by the joint committee for ALA/SAA/AAM. Panelists will discuss recent usability practices and testing of interfaces for collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archives.

Moderator: Jennifer Schaffner, Head of Public Services, Clark Library, UCLA. Presenters: Merrilee Proffitt, Program Officer, RLG; Erika Dowell, Public Services Librarian, Lilly Library, Indiana University; and Elizabeth Yakel, Assistant Professor, Archives Program, University of Michigan.

Seminar C: The “Hidden Collections” Project: How You Can Get Involved

Presenters will give an update on the project, including preliminary results of the survey of hidden collections in North American research libraries. Yale University librarians and archivists will discuss projects already underway at their institution. Ample time will be provided for presenters and audience to discuss possible pilot projects and collaborations.

Moderator and presenter: Barbara Jones, University Librarian, Wesleyan University.

Presenters: Joan Swanekamp, Chief Catalog Librarian, Sterling Memorial Library; Nicole Bouché, Head, Manuscript Unit, Beinecke Library; and Thomas Hyry, Head of Arrangement and Description, Manuscript & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Seminar D: The Diaspora of Music Special Collections: European Music in the United States and American Music in Europe

This seminar will consist of presentations and discussion, by a panel of speakers representing American and European repositories and international scholarship, addressing the building of collections across international boundaries and the effects of the dispersal of music materials on research.

Moderator: Karen Spicher, Archivist, Manuscript Unit, Beinecke Library.

Speakers: Kendall L. Crilly, Librarian, Yale University Music Library; Stephen Hinton, Professor, Department of Music, Stanford University; and John Wagstaff, Music Faculty Library, Oxford University.

Seminar E: Curating Exhibitions in Special Collections and on the Web

Exhibitions provide a wonderful opportunity for special collections librarians to examine their collections more closely and present the results of their research to faculty, students, advanced researchers, and the general public. While exhibitions contribute to the professional development of librarians, they can also greatly benefit institutions as well. Exhibits allow libraries to display significant holdings, educate researchers about primary sources of potential scholarly interest, and inform the public of current areas of collection development. Exhibits can be an effective element of outreach and can also contribute to programming, donor relations, and development opportunities.

The purpose of this seminar is to review the numerous benefits of mounting exhibitions and to discuss the practical elements of successfully curating exhibitions onsite and on the web. The speakers will provide practical information on preparing exhibitions for various types of venues, including college and university libraries, independent and government institutions, and the web. The format will consist of informal presentations by the moderator and the three speakers, to be followed by discussion between the panelists and the audience.

Moderator: Daniel J. Slive, Associate, Americana Dept., William Reese Company. Presenters: Claudia Funke, Curator of Rare Books, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University; Suzy Taraba, Head of Special Collections and University Archivist, Wesleyan University; and John Pull, Webmaster, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Seminar F: Funding Opportunities for Special Collections Projects

Representatives of funding organizations will describe the range of funding opportunities for special collections. They will define the differences between the organizations’ priorities and the areas in which they overlap; discuss considerations such as eligibility requirements, expected institutional cost share, and the evaluation process; and they will describe the help that they make available for the grant writer. A question and answer period will follow the panel’s presentation.

Moderator: Barbara Paulson, Senior Program Officer, Division of Preservation and Access, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Presenters: Susan Malbin, Senior Program Officer, Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Max Evans, Executive Director, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Seminar G: Teaching a New Generation of Researchers: The Instructional Needs of Undergraduates Using Primary Source Materials

The purpose of this seminar is to generate discussion about the complexities of instructing a new generation of undergraduates in academic special collections and to illustrate possible solutions to the problem of reaching out to this population. Presenters will: explore the educational needs and demands of their respective undergraduate users; describe the challenges they face in meeting those needs; evaluate the present and future initiatives addressing such challenges (specifically by examining the development and use of online tutorials); demonstrate the value and use of technology in meeting instructional goals; and propose possible strategies for successful outreach to undergraduates.

Moderator: Laura Clark Brown, Head of Public Services, Manuscripts Department, UNC-Chapel Hill. Presenters: Jill S. Stover, MLS Candidate, School of Information and Library Science, UNC-Chapel Hill; Elizabeth Dunn, Reference Services Librarian, Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University; Diane Kaplan, Head of Reference Services, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University; and William R. Massa, Public Services Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University.

Seminar H: Using the TEI for Early Printed Books: An Encoding Guide and Reference

The Brown University Women Writers Project is producing a guide to TEI/XML encoding for scholars and librarians working with early printed books. This presentation will describe the project in more detail, with emphasis on the special problems involved in representing the book from the standpoint of physical bibliography. The presenters will discuss the implications of text encoding for bibliographic description and the analytical work that it may enable; they will also consider how standards for bibliographic description might be adapted to function more effectively in a digital context.

Moderator: Julia Flanders, Director of the Women Writers Project, Brown University, and Chair of the Text Encoding Initiative Consortium. Presenters: Richard Noble, Rare Book Cataloger, John Hay Library, Brown University and Terry Catapano, Special Collections Analyst/Librarian, Digital Libraries Projects, Columbia University.

Seminar I: Special Collections and Library Administrators: Building Successful Relationships

This seminar is intended to help present and aspiring administrators of special collections establish and build successful relationships with the library directors and administrators to whom they report. It is also meant to help library administrators better understand the unique aspects of managing special collections. The presenters include a pair of special collections and library administrators who worked closely together for 20 years, and another pair who have come into new roles in special collections and library administration in the last two years. The respective pairs will lead a panel discussion, inviting audience questions and comment, on the following topics: first days on the job: establishing mutual expectations and goals; special collections and library administration: defining roles and authority; special collections and other library units: interpreting perceptions, creating collaboration; and facing challenges and crises: maintaining good communication and trust.

Moderator: Christian Dupont, Head of Special Collections, Syracuse University Library. Presenters: Alice Prochaska, University Librarian, Yale University; Merrily Taylor, former University Librarian, Brown University, and University Librarian-designate, Washington & Lee University; and Sam Streit, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, Brown University Library.

Papers

Group A

W. Gerald Heverly, New York University
Repatriating the Papers of German Émigré Philosophers: the PittsburghKonstanz Archival Partnership

Anne Rothfeld, Reference Librarian, National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division
Restitution of Library and Manuscript Collections in Post-War Europe: The Offenbach Archival Depot

Joel Wurl, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota
Documenting Displacement: The Migration of Archival Sources from Post WWII East European Émigré Groups

Group B

Walter Brem, Latin American Curator, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
The Bancroft Library and Mexico’s Bibliographic Disasters of the 19th Century

Melissa Conway, Head, Special Collections, UC Riverside, and Lisa Fagin Davis, UMCC/De Ricci Census Update Project
The Migration of pre-1600 Manuscript Collections to (and among) North American Libraries in the 20th Century

Ronald D. Patkus, Head of Archives and Special Collections, Vassar College
Musical Migrations: A Case Study of the Teresa Carreño Papers

Group C

Earle Havens, Curator of Manuscripts, Boston Public Library 
Neo-Philobiblon: The Migration of the Osborn Collection of Literary and Historical Manuscripts from Britain to the Beinecke Library

Margaret K. Powell, Librarian, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
“… and nothing mattered but the eighteenth century”: W.S. Lewis and His Collection

Gregory J. Prickman, SSM Health Care, St. Louis
“Towards the Formation of a Free Library”: The English Book Donation to Chicago

Workshops

Two all day workshops will be offered on Monday, June 21. There are no fees for either of these workshops, but registration is limited, and pre-registration is required. Pre-registration to these workshops is done on the preconference registration form.

Cataloging Manuscript Music

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
121 Wall St.
Monday, June 21
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

While music manuscripts share characteristics of printed music, they are also unique materials requiring original cataloging and often deserving detailed description and access. Catalogers and archivists responsible for giving access to manuscript music should be prepared to describe evidence of the composer’s creative process, publication and performance history of the work, and use and ownership of the artifact. This full-day workshop will present new rules for cataloging post-16th century music manuscripts under development by a Joint Subcommittee of the ALA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Bibliographic Standards Committee and the Music Library Association Bibliographic Control Committee, one of several Task Groups involved in the revision of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials. Participants will gain an overview of issues in description, participate in hands-on exercises, and receive a packet of guidelines and resources for creating MARC catalog records in accordance with existing standards and rules developed by the Task Group.

The workshop will include an introductory talk on the use of music manuscripts in research, overviews of general music cataloging standards and reference tools, a summary of DCRM revision, discussion of examples of description and access issues specific to manuscripts, and hands-on exercises. For examples and exercises, American and European manuscripts from the 18th-20th centuries will be drawn from holdings of the Yale Music Library and the Beinecke Library.

This workshop is intended for music catalogers who desire experience with manuscripts, and archivists who are responsible for cataloging music manuscripts or who encounter music materials in archival collections. Participants should be familiar with AACR2 and have some background knowledge of music. Experience with manuscript or other rare materials cataloging is desirable. Class size will be limited to a maximum of 20 registrants.

Speakers and Facilitators:
RBMS/MLA Task Group: Jain Fletcher, Head, Technical Services, Department of Special Collections, UCLA; Nancy Lorimer, Head, Technical Services, Stanford Music Library; Karen Spicher, Archivist, Beinecke Library, Yale University; and Charlotte Wolfe, Music Cataloger, University of Michigan.

Yale University: Helen Bartlett, Assistant Music Librarian; Michelle Koth, Music Catalog Librarian; and Joan Swanekamp, Chief Catalog Librarian.

Beyond the Eye: The Technical Examination of Rare Books, Maps and Manuscripts

Yale Center for British Art
1080 Chapel St.
Monday, June 21
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Technical studies can greatly enrich our knowledge of artifacts, and by extension our skills as curators, conservators, and collection managers. This workshop will introduce participants to the types of technical studies conservators utilize to assess artifacts and plan appropriate treatments. Workshop participants will discuss the physical structure and characteristics of works from the Center’s collection of rare books and other materials and then examine them with microscopy, ultraviolet light, and infrared reflectography in the Center’s conservation laboratory. Class size will be limited to a maximum of 15 participants.

Speakers and Facilitators:
Theresa Fairbanks Harris, Chief Conservator, Yale Center for British Art; Elisabeth Fairman, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Yale Center for British Art; Heather Hendry, Assistant Conservator, Yale Center for British Art; and Gisela Noack, Chief Conservator, Yale University Library.

Note: The Technical Examination of Rare Materials workshop is full. As of April 21, 2004, ACRL is no longer accepting registration for this event, as there is already a significant waiting list.